Tag Archives: Project Exchange

Want to hear some scary facts? The most common password of all time is “123456.” The second most common password of all time is “12345”. The third most common password is “123456789.” I think I see a pattern…

Why is that so scary? Do your users have access to important business data? If so, have you established password standards that all users must follow? Your weakest security link could very well be your users and their weak passwords. These days, all it takes is one user with a password of “123456”, and your critical business data is at risk.

I’m sure you’ve had this problem before: You’re looking through a large report (like this one). As you scroll down, you forget which columns are which because the column headings are off the screen. You’re constantly scrolling up to the top of the page just to see the column headings. It’s really annoying.

Excel has a handy way of dealing with this. It lets you freeze the header row so the column headings are always visible. However, Excel isn’t a multi-user reporting tool–it’s not meant for company-wide reporting or data analysis. As any smart business knows, relying too heavily on Excel can lead to all sorts of problems.

Do you regularly feel overwhelmed with information? In the age of the web, obtaining information is no longer a problem. Making sense of all that information is another story entirely.

I’d like to share a little technique used for organizing data. Instead of cramming a bunch of information into one web application, separate it into tabs. For example, take a look at the speedometer chart on this business dashboard. It’s actually 4 speedometer charts in one place, all on different tabs.

A retrieval is an extremely handy application. It displays any amount of data pulled in real-time from your database. It lets you sort and search by any column, filter your results, drill down to more data, and more. Basically, if you ever want to look up any data in your database instantly via a web browser, you want a retrieval.

Now, the example above displays customer details in a vertical table. But, what if you want to display your records horizontally? Enter the new “Horizontal Retrieval,” another free template found in the m-Power Project Exchange. As the name implies, it lets you create retrievals that display records horizontally rather than vertically.

As I mentioned in a previous post, a recent survey reveals that most companies are overwhelmed by the influx of data…yet, most also said they want more data. Business leaders realize the value of data, yet most have not yet figured out how to use that data to their advantage.

What’s the secret? Assuming you already store your data in a database, the key to controlling that data is presentation. For example, applications like this interactive report let you view and filter large amounts of data instantly. As a slightly different example, applications like this business dashboard are great at organizing and displaying important data in one place. Today, I’d like to introduce you to another report that helps you control data: The accordion report.

Input validation isn’t an exciting topic, yet it’s one of the most commonly used web app features. For example, every time you log in to your email account, every time you type in a date, or any time you type any information into an online form, input validation is used in the background. It’s used as security measures or just to alert users of input errors.

If you ever need input validation in your web apps, I’d like to highlight a great project available in our m-Power Project Exchange that lets you validate user input with SQL. How is this better than other methods, such as validation with javascript? I could rattle off any number of reasons, but here’s one big one: Javascript validation requires code on each application it’s needed. SQL validation code resides in only one place (on your server) and can be used by many applications. This means any necessary change to the validation code is only made once, rather than on every application.

Keep in mind that while the example uses date validation, it will really validate just about anything. This project is free to all m-Power customers. For download and installation instructions, click here.

I’d like to highlight another handy little project freely available in the m-Power Project Exchange, but this time it’s not a template–it’s a user defined function (UDF). If you’re unfamiliar with the term, here is a great explanation of UDFs and how m-Power uses them.

This UDF fixes a common problem with MS SQL databases. As you may know, the MS SQL database uses date/time fields. In other words, if you want to pull the date from a MS SQL database into a web application, it will give you the date and time, not just the date. Obviously, sometimes you just want the date.

This is where the Date/Time Conversion UDF comes into play. It takes the date/time field and then converts and displays it as a new date-only field. If you use the MS SQL database this UDF could save you quite a bit of time.

This project is free to any m-Power user. If you want to learn more or download this project, click here.

The big difference between reporting/BI tools and development tools is the maintenance application. Reporting/BI tools create applications that pull information from your database. Development tools create those as well as maintenance applications, which write to the database. This is useful for applications like online forms, surveys, user registration, database maintenance, etc…

I’d like to highlight a free template in the m-Power Project Exchange that makes database maintenance applications even better: The Context Menu Template. While m-Power already lets you build maintenance applications, the context menu template adds a very useful extra feature. When you right-click on a field, an option menu pops up for easy database maintenance. It’s dead simple and makes database maintenance even more intuitive than before.

This template is free for m-Power customers and can be downloaded here. To learn more about m-Power, visit our product page.

I’d like to highlight another great (and free) template over in the m-Power Project Exchange. In case you’re unfamiliar with the Project Exchange, check out this page. If you’re unfamiliar with m-Power’s template-based approach to development, check out our build-process page.

Today, I’d like to highlight a simple, yet useful template that you might find useful: The CSV Report Template. As the name implies, this template lets users export their data into a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file.

I remember when printing labels for mailing required typewriters. It was quite a chore. Then, along came MS office and the mail merge, which simplified the job but still required a bit of work. You still had to get your list together, clean it up and format it in excel, and then mail merge it into a Word doc.

I’d like to highlight another project in our m-Power Project Exchange that simplifies your mailing label duties: The 3-Up Label Template. Basically, it pulls the addresses you need from your database and automatically puts them in a 3-Up Label format (PDF), all ready to print. No more finding, formatting, and setting up a mail merge. Just set up the template and print away!

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About the Author

Joe Stangarone is a 30+ year veteran of the IT industry and president of mrc—the software company behind the award winning development platform, m-Power. Joe shares his leadership and technology insights through the Cup of Joe Blog, focusing primarily on ways businesses can save time, money, and increase productivity using technology.